NHS 'to employ half of public sector by 2026'

The NHS workforce plan will cost £50 billion and result in the health service employing half the public sector by the 2030s, analysis concludes today.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has in effect “stolen more than a decade’s worth of budgets” from his successors by setting out plans to hire almost a million extra NHS staff without a clear way to pay for them, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says.

Hunt has been urged to use his autumn statement to start setting out whether tax rises, borrowing or cuts elsewhere will be used to fund the “massive spending commitment”.

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Source: The Times, 30 August 2023